On Books, Reading and other Delightful Things

‘Crimson Tide’ and Lippizaner stallions

I was watching the movie ‘Crimson Tide’ for the nth time today. It is one of my favourite movies and has Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington playing leading roles. Hackman plays the role of Captain Ramsey, the captain of an American nuclear submarine and Washington plays the role of Hunter, Captain Ramsey’s deputy. The sparks fly between these two – because Ramsey is a chap who has been at sea for a few decades, while Hunter is one of the younger breed of officers, who has sophisticated degrees in his resume but hasn’t seen active service. In one particular tense situation, where Captain Ramsey is holding Hunter nearly under arrest (I won’t reveal more of the story here. You have to watch the movie, if you haven’t already), Ramsey suddenly starts talking about horses. I am giving below a snippet of the dialogue that follows.

Capt. Ramsey: Speaking of horses did you ever see those Lipizzaner stallions.

Hunter: What?

Capt. Ramsey: From Portugal. The Lipizzaner stallions. The most highly trained horses in the world. They’re all white?

Hunter: Yes, sir I’ve seen them. Yes, sir I was aware that they’re are all white. They are not from Portugal; they’re from Spain and at birth, they’re not white; they’re black. Sir.

Capt. Ramsey: I didn’t know that. But they are from Portugal.

[Chuckling]

Capt. Ramsey: Some of the things they do, uh, defy belief. Their training program is simplicity itself. You just stick a cattle prod up their ass and you can get a horse to deal cards.

[Chuckles]

Capt. Ramsey: Simple matter of voltage.

To see the full effect of the scene, you can watch the video here.

The conversation made me smile. It is totally unrelated to the tense situation on board the submarine 🙂 It also brings out different facets of the personalities of two people who don’t agree on many things. The lines are also open to other interpretations. (Some of my former bosses and former customers will chuckle after reading the last two lines of Captain Ramsey! Because that is what they practised everyday :)) After watching this scene again today, I did what I had wanted to do before – do some research on Lippizaner stallions 🙂 In addition to the above interesting facts, this is what I found.

Facts

The Lippizaner horse’s place of origin is believed to be in modern day Slovenia (though they are believed to have descended from Spain in the distant past). Lippizan is Slovenia’s national symbol

Modern day Lippizans are believed to have descended from eight stallions – Pluto, Conversano, Maestoso, Favory, Neapolitano, Siglavy, Tulipan, Incitato (interestingly, all look like Italian names!)

Lippizans are associated with the ‘Spanish Riding school’ but the ‘Spanish Riding School’ is situated in Vienna, Austria 🙂

Some movies which are based on Lippizaner horses are Florian (about two Lippizaner horses), Miracle of the White Stallions (about the rescue of Lippizaner stallions during World War II), The White Horses (Yugoslavian TV series about the adventures of a teenage girl who visits a Lippizaner farm)

Some stories which are based on Lippizaner horses are ‘The Star of Kazan’ by Eva Ibbotson and ‘Airs above the ground’ by Mary Stewart

“…approximately A.D. 800 the earliest predecessors of the Lipizzan originated in the 7th century when Barb horses were brought into Spain by the Moors and crossed on native Spanish stock. The result was the Andalusian horse…”

important note: the native Spanish stallion horses were brought to Spain from Portugal and the stallions were portuguese Sorraia horses!

It’s one of my favorite movies as well. One of the many things I like about it is that they leave certain things open about Hunter that could be predictable, but the movie never pulls the trigger. For example, Hunter could very well have asthma, because after a big workout, he has a coughing fit, but they never predictably do anything with his possible asthma or even confirm that he even has asthma. Also, during one of his workouts, he is punching a heavy bag, ,obviously taking out his anger toward the captain on the bag, but once again, they never do anything with his obvious punching skills. In fact, he just lets the captain smack him around. There are so many predictable things in movies that are set up by scenes like that, that I found this aspect of Crimson Tide to be very refreshing and realistic.

Andalusian or Portugese horses were crossed with the local breed of already existing horses left behind by the ancient Romans in the Karts region of Slovenia where Lipica stud farm is located. I think it is a stupid movie and a tribute to a poorly researched content of a Hollywood movie. God forbid anyone should mention Slovenia in the context of Lipizzaners. For a more in-depth view of the Lipizzaners go to the french version of wikipedia, english version leaves a lot of it out.

I love all the facts. I have heard of them, but didn’t really know much about them. Also, I haven’t seen the movie Crimson tide. Sounds like an odd conversation for the plot. I’ll add it to my rental list.

You have to understand that the Captain is a racist and then all the comments make sense. The sub is the Alabama, named after a Southern USA state. The title “Crimson Tide” also relates to what they call the sports teams of the University of Alabama, esp. the football team. Yeah its very suspenseful.

I don’t at all think the captain is racist, but he is aware that the use of a racial insult is a power play and he intends to assert his command over Hunter. I can see how it’s easy to assume him as a racist and he may in fact be one, but I think in the context of the movie and that scene, it is simply about domination.

Crimson tide was an excellent movie and Denzel Washington should have won an Oscar for his performance. The underlying motive of the conversation about the horses was to indicate white supremacy and to denigrate Denzel Washington wno was this second in command black officer questioning this white Captain’s authority. Captain Ramsey’s` implication was that these horses who are the most highly trained are white like me and therefore who are you as a black man to question my authority however to his surprise Denzel Washington’s character “Hunter” his deputy was more knowledgeable than he thought and state that the horses were white however they are born black.

The conversation between captain Ramsey and Mr. Hunter about these hourses is not referring to the hourses themselves, but to the superiority of the white man over the black man. This is clear when cap. Ramsey says ” the most highly trained hourses in the world. they are all white”. Then Mr. Hunter defends his race with saying ” at birth they are black”. The writer of the movie’s scenario is trying to show how the white man arrogance could lead to catastrophic situations.